[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19449]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     HURRICANE KATRINA SUPPLEMENTAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the supplemental 
appropriation to help the people devastated by this hurricane. As 
Members can probably tell, I have laryngitis. I may lose my voice again 
during the course of my remarks, but I feel compelled to speak today at 
the outset to express my sincere condolence to all those families that 
have lost loved ones or still wonder where their loved ones are in the 
wake of this terrifying and terrible hurricane.
  My heart goes out to all of those that have been impacted. The 
effects of this hurricane have been devastating. We have seen its 
physical force, extraordinary winds, the water, the flooding, the wrath 
of nature in Hurricane Katrina.
  It has been awesome and terrible in its destruction, but sadness has 
given way to anger and disbelief as we have seen people stranded on 
roof tops, as we have seen mothers worry about whether their babies 
will have enough to eat, as we have seen children worry about their 
parents' medical conditions and the lack of medicine, as we have 
wondered how this could happen in the United States of America.
  National disasters afflict every part of the globe, but it seems that 
this national disaster has been compounded by our response and in cases 
by our lack of response. The images we have seen have been horrifying. 
We have all wondered how it was that so many people came to be left 
behind, how it was that we could have assumed that when 20 percent of 
the population of New Orleans lives under the level of poverty, that 
everyone would have a means of getting out of New Orleans before the 
storm. How it is that there are not buses running around the clock to 
take people away from this terrible place with no food, no water, 
giving way to lawlessness?
  I heard today that the District of Columbia is sending 10 buses, and 
I applaud the District of Columbia, but it will take days for those 
buses to get there. Why are there not buses around the clock? Why is it 
that these news crews can go and take this devastating footage and find 
these survivors, and the relief effort cannot?
  I, like a great many Americans, do not understand how this is 
possible in the United States of America. My constituents demand that 
we move both earth and heaven to bring relief as fast as possible to 
the people of the Gulf Coast, and we have been bitterly disappointed to 
see how this tragedy has been prolonged, and we have the most profound 
questions about how in the richest Nation on earth it can take so long 
to simply get people out of that disaster zone to higher ground, drier 
ground, to food, medicine. I do not understand the government's 
response. I really do not.
  And yes, there will be plenty of time to ask these questions and we 
will ask them. But the rest of the country is asking them now. We 
demand a better response than we are getting. I hope that as some of 
the officials from FEMA and the National Guard are saying, the calvary 
is on the way, the calvary is truly on the way. And I hope that effort 
only accelerates and mushrooms and does not stop until every last 
person has been evacuated.
  This has been a devastating week for the United States. We have seen 
bodies floating through the streets. We have heard the voices of 
Americans question how their government could leave them in such a 
place in such a time with such developed mass transportation, without 
airlifts of food and medicine, without rapid evacuation. This country 
can do better. This country must do better. I hope and pray we are 
doing a lot better right this moment.
  I am proud of this Congress for coming into this session and rapidly 
approving this aid, and it is incumbent upon this Congress to ensure 
this aid is delivered ASAP and not another moment goes by with another 
victim waiting to be rescued.

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